English Teaching

ELT365 · Day 205 — Speaking sub-skills — stress and intonation

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Idea — Stress and intonation carry meaning in spoken English. A sentence stressed differently changes its meaning or politeness level. Teaching these explicitly improves both production and listening comprehension.

Example — ‘I didn’t say she stole the money.’ Stress each word in turn and the implied meaning shifts with each repetition. Seven words; seven meanings.

Try — Write one sentence with at least six words. Read it aloud with the stress on a different word each time. Ask learners to say what changes. They’ll remember stress for the rest of the course.


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